Full disclosure: this was the second title tonight since I started under the same chapter as last night. Anyway, a lot of exposition, so let's get to it.
Before I did anything meaningful, I just kinda bummed around looking for side quests. Most of them don’t activate until AFTER tonight, so I wasted a lot of time. To make myself forget I wasted more of my life, I entered the once Dead Sea and sailed over to one of the shining lights. I activated the Astral Amulet, and, after all the blessings were sucked in, was urged to Insert Disk 2. This is the least glorious disk switch ever, and it disappoints me.
In the Sea of Eden, we see three isles named Present, Future, and Past. They also reference actions you can make to a thread, but I didn’t get the metaphor. There is also a large triangular sea suspended in the air between the islands. On each island is an altar with a red save point on it. After you activated the three points, a boss appears. I find it alarming that it resembles the Queen Zeal battle at the end of the Black Omen, but that might just be my head cannon.
I didn’t find this fella too hard. Maybe it’s because I did 1000 damage to it with the Serge/Glenn duel tech, X-Slash. I didn’t even know you could so over 1000 damage in Chrono Cross. I always thought the damage cap was 999. You learn something new every day.
After the boss is defeated, the sky sea fades and reveals a building in the middle.
The building is named Chronopolis. Shortly after I walk in, I’m attacked by a new boss named PolisPolice. It’s a great pun for a boring fight. He’s a robot with a white innate, and I don’t have many black elements equipped...still. Despite this, I have a million heals, and the PP doesn’t have heavy teamwide attacks. He’s utterly forgettable.
Throughout the dungeon are black ghostlike entities. They talk to the aether about whatever it is they were/are working on. I have no idea what timeline this building is doing. That sentence doesn’t make sense until you realize it makes all the sense. What’s most interesting about Chronopolis is the dungeon has clues as to what happened between Trigger and Cross. There’s a lot of exposition, so I’ll sum it all up floor by floor.
First Floor:
Two shadow ghosts talk about Time Experiments in the year 2400, 100 years after the furthest date in Trigger. The Frozen Flame is mentioned.
Second Floor:
A map of El Nido is on the floor and another figure telling us it’s history. FATE created these islands 10000 years ago. Workers from this facility then moved into the islands to keep track of time. But, I thought Dragonians inhabited the archipelago?
Third Floor:
There is more Chrono Trigger history about Lavos and the Reptites. In the middle room, we learn about the save point. The Records of Fate can change people's emotions. It’s made to guide and track mankind but can also change their personality somehow. Head cannon here: is this to keep people from finding this building? Or discover time travel? Or just for control? There’s also a reference to Radical Dreamers, a SatelliteView game that functions as a kinda intermediary between the games.
Fourth Floor:
The top floor has ghosts talking about Lucca discovering a Time Egg for time travel. She also helped to invent the Prometheus Circuit as part of FATE. We also learn her last name is Ashtear. That's a fun ret-con. Interestingly, they doubt Zeal’s existence. We also learn more about the Record of Fate, thus answering all those questions I just asked. It’s been monitoring El Nido, both of them, to avoid any large scale changes. A big difference in one world may expose Chronopolis. If anything massive happens, it may lead to a paradox and destroy everything. FATE specifically monitors the inhabitants and wants them to avoid the main continent. It then lists a few examples of the people from Arni I mentioned in older blogs. However, since the Dead Sea was formed ten years ago, FATE has been unable to do anything in Home World.
Docks:
This facility appeared out of nowhere in 2300. It was headed by the genius Balthazar, who suddenly disappeared one day. Some may remember Balthazar as the creator of Epoch, The Wings of Time and the Guru of Time in Zeal.
In the basement is a locked door underneath a sign called Project Kid. Serge scans his hand for entrance, and he’s allowed in. Only the Arbiter is allowed in, and Serge is a 96% match. It then says, “Welcome back, Chrono Trigger.”, which is what Lynx called us the night we raided Viper Manor. Speaking of whom, what happened to Lynx?
Speak of the devil, Lynx is standing here waiting for us as an unconscious Kid lies next to him. Lynx needed Serge’s body to reach this room, which is the most important room in Chrono Cross. Not only does it house FATE itself, but the Frozen Flame lies in the middle of it all. And only Serge can operate it. As for Lynx, he is the physical manifestation of FATE. Created so that FATE may manually adjust what goes on the world.
He also informs us that a traitor circuit is installed in FATE that has been causing problems called the Prometheus Circut. Prometheus is the formal name of Robo in Chrono Trigger. Lynx then orders FATE to remove ROBO, who, in his dying act, wishes us well and tells us to stop FATE. Ready to finish us off himself, Lynx tries to do the same to us.
Today I learned that summons do a lot of damage. I’ve had so many problems with FATE in the past. This time, though, no one died. I used a few healing spells, which is unavoidable, but no one came close to dying. At some point, ai opted to use the Saints summon with did nearly 1000 damage. I then had Glenn cast Genie doing 600. I couldn’t get Leena to use FrogPrince as all the damage I did leading up to the summons was enough to slay my arch-nemesis. FATE only got one of her countdown move out. I have to wonder, though, why is FATE, in this battle, depicted in a clearly feminine form?
The battle over and Lynx killed, Kid wakes up. After quickly not caring about her predicament, she notices the Frozen Flame above her. Before she is able to grasp it, Harle appears to stop her. Kid, suddenly woke, informs us of the history of Chronopolis. This building, and maybe all of El Nido, is a strange merger of the Lavos timeline, Chrono Timeline, and Reptite timeline. Harle then regrets needing to fight us and rushes towards the Flame, takes it, and knocks Kid out along the way. The camera suddenly shifts to all of the Dragons rejoicing in the loss of FATE. They then plan to eradicate all humans.
That can’t be good! The Six Dragons are seen over Chronopolis. The Green Dragon then bites the White Dragon, and they all being to meld together into one super Dragon. Sky Dragon Isle turns into a floating fortress, and the party returns to the Invincible, unable to get in. Our next task is to find a way to fly.
But before that, let’s do some side quests. Firat was getting Leena her third tech attack. Just talk to her grandma in Home World.
The second quest involved most of the Viper Clan. On a small island northeast of Termina in Home World lies a Forbidden Island. On it is a man who Glenn and Riddle know as Dario. We finally meet the legend! Alas, he has no memory. Glenn and Riddle tell us there’s an item in the manor that can jog Dario’s memory. Transferring dimensions, we go to where we’re told and find the item missing. In its place is a note. "Come to the Isle of the Damned and bring Karsh signed Peppor and Solt." Glad to see they’re still active! We go to the isle, with Karsh, and end up where we fought Garai in the other world. The Shaker brothers accuse Karsh of murdering Dario. Instead, we shake them up, and they give up their chase. Karsh says he didn’t kill him, but we do see a flashback of Karsh, Glenn, Riddle, and Dario training together. Karah and Dario both love Riddle, but Dario wins out in the end, while Karsh gets upset and heartbroken. A final scene where Dario is thrown back is shown.
We return to the Forbidden isle and show Dario the item. He tells us to run. Suddenly, the Masamune appears as Karsh and Radius enter the hut. Radius assumes the sword didn’t disappear, but rather, returned to its owner. Karsh then fills us all in. While He, Dario, and the Shakers explored the Isle of the Damned, they found the Masamune. Dario picked it up and, possessed by his dead dad, tried to kill Karah. Dario was able to hold back just enough until Karsh, with much reluctance, was able to put his friend down in self-defense and at the behest of his friend.
And then Dario attacks the party. He’s a black innate, so I assume we should spam white attacks. This is wrong! Dario counters every spell with his own. He rarely interrupts our attacks but will mess us up with his counters. I didn’t realize this until battle two after getting swept in battle one. Glenn almost soloed him by not having white spells, and, therefore, receiving the worst counters. What you should do is cast TurnBlue on Dario. He’ll counter this with weaken, so maybe have Riddle cast it. After this, spam red spells. He’ll counter with Numble to lower our evasion. This doesn’t matter if we only use red elements, though. Cast as much Inferno as you can, and the great hero will fall. If we use white elements, he'll attack with a devastating tech that one-shots us.
In the scene after, Radius tells us we’ve cleansed the sword. Masa and Mune wake up and are joined by Doreen. It can now be equipped by Serge as his best weapon. The party goes to the ruined Viper Manor where Dario promises to turn his life around. Despite being from separate dimensions, he and Riddle rekindle their love.
Finally, I look into how to use the Rainbow Shells and get everyone else’s best weapons. I then learn I can’t because I skipped the scene needed. By wanting to return to my body, I rushed passed the scene where Nikki plays his concert in Marbule. God god damn it damn it!!
Upset and mildly furious, I called it a night. I’m really annoyed that I'm locked out of the best gear in the game. What an absolutely terrible game mechanic. I don’t even know what to say, so I’m going to bed. Gonna do some research when I wake up.
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